Heather Nova is the Bermudian Songwriter who grew up on a boat in the Caribbean and went on to sell over 2 million albums in her 15 year career to date. She has released seven albums and has opened for artists like Van Morrison and Neil Young as well as performed with artists like Sarah McLachlan. She has also had hit records with co-writes featuring artists like ATB (Renegade), and Eskobar (Someone New).Her brother is the Reggae singer Mishka.
By the end of the 1980s, after leaving RISD, Heather moved briefly to New York City (where she unsuccessfully tried to interest some major labels in a demo including Columbia , who rejected her, only to sign her five years later ), before moving to London, England. She has British citizenship due to her Bermudan origin. In 1990, she released her first recording, an EP called 'Heather Frith' — she had not yet changed her name by then. The name change came a year or so later after several gigs in the Netherlands, where, after finding out that the Dutch have trouble pronouncing "Frith," she chose a name that would be easily pronounceable in every European language, "Nova," her Canadian mother's maiden name.
The new name debuted in 1993 with her second EP 'Spirit in You' and her first full album, 'Glow Stars'. The success of the album led her to record and release her first live album, 'Blow', the same year, which she supported by a tour of Europe. A year later in 1994 she released what many consider to be her finest work to date, the emotional yet jagged album 'Oyster', for which she toured for almost two years. Another live album, 'Live from the Milky Way', was released in 1995, and after its release she toured for nearly three years straight, twice joining Sarah McLachlan and others on the North American Lilith Fair, which is a music festival with only female performers. Heather is also a frequent performer at European music festivals such as Roskilde.
In 1998, the long-awaited follow up to 'Oyster' was released. After the release of 'Siren', Heather took a break while various television show and film soundtracks licensed some of her songs and her record company (Sony Records/The WORK Group) released various singles from the album, which received only moderate play on America's MTV2, Europe's MTV and Canada's MuchMusic and on mainstream radio, although she was popular on college radio. Also during this time, she recorded a version of the often covered Billie Holiday song, 'Gloomy Sunday', for the German WWII drama Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod. In 2000, she released yet another live album, called 'Wonderlust'.
Over the years, Heather has written and recorded over a hundred songs, so that her albums are selected from work that has often already been performed live, rather than being conceived during rushed songwriting sessions. Half the songs on 'Siren' had been written during the 'Oyster' sessions and were frequently played live prior to being committed to a studio session, and most of the songs for 2001's 'South' were written between 1999 and 2000 while she was on hiatus from touring. With the release of 'South', she returned to the international spotlight with an appearance on the soundtrack of the John Cusack movie "Serendipity", a couple of music videos, and a collaboration with Swedish band Eskobar, for a song called "Someone New", also released as a video, which proved so popular that it was played primarily on America's MTV, not just MTV2 (which is normally reserved for less-popular songs). 'Storm', Heather's fifth studio album, was released in late 2003 on Big Cat Records, as was 'Redbird', released in 2005.
In 2002, she self-published 'the sorrowjoy', a 72-page book of her poetry and drawings. An album of the same name was released in March 2006, which featured Nova reading the poems from her book set to ambient music. The album has only been available for purchase at concerts beginning with the Intimate Evening tour, from the fan-run websites, HeatherNova.Net and HeatherNova.De, and from the official website, www.heathernova.com.
The album Storm was released in 2003. It was a more refined album, using Mercury Rev as Heather's backing band. The album was Top 5 in Germany and Top 10 across Europe. It was an album of dark ballads, marking a step away from the polished sound of South. It was also Heather's first release on her own record label, Saltwater Records. Despite being pregnant, she toured hard with a new line up and band, before returning home to Bermuda. (A live DVD was made of these concerts (live at the Union Chapel)
Widescreen
Heather Nova Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Thinking I'm the only one
Drifting in and out of blue
But destiny's a state of mind
And today I'm doing fine
Rolling through the afternoon with you
And I'm lying on the backseat of my mind
And it's a widescreen you beside me
We're just riding on the backseat feeling fine
I will be your misfit queen
I'll take you where the grass is green
Past the littered sidewalk to the sun
I hear the traffic move outside
Yeah but if I close my eyes
I can make it sound like waves rolling on
And it's a widescreen world around me
And I'm lying on the backseat of my mind
And it's a widescreen, you beside me
We're just riding on the backseat feeling fine
And if we lie still can you feel the room
Feel the city, can you feel it move?
Tell your body, your body from mine?
Can you la la la lie
Can you feel I still, can you feel the room
Feel the city, can you feel it move?
Can you tell your body, your body from mine?
I'm lyin' on the backseat of my mind
I'm lyin' on the backseat of my mind
I'm lyin' on the backseat of my mind
And it's a widescreen world around me
And I'm lying on the backseat of my mind
And it's a widescreen, got you beside me
We're just riding on the backseat feeling fine
And it's a widescreen world around me
And I'm lying on the backseat of my mind
And it's a widescreen, you beside me
We're just riding on the backseat feeling fine
I'm lyin' on the backseat of my mind
I'm lyin' on the backseat of my mind
I'm lyin' on the backseat of my mind
In Heather Nova's song Widescreen, she sings about finding solace in the company of another person when life is tough. The first verse seems to indicate that the singer is feeling down and alone, but then the chorus kicks in, describing the world around her as "widescreen." This is a metaphor for the expansiveness of life, and how it's possible to see and experience so much more when there's someone else there to share it all with. The singer is lying on the backseat of her own mind, but she's happy to have someone else there beside her to double the experience.
The second verse takes the metaphor even further. The singer explicitly acknowledges that she wants to take her companion on a journey with her, away from the mundane and into a place where they can both feel free. The traffic outside might seem like an invasive reminder of the world they're leaving behind, but the singer manages to tune it out and focus on the sound of imagined waves - this is another example of how much power we have over our own experiences, especially when we're sharing them with others. The final chorus doubles down on the main message of the song: there's a huge world out there waiting to be explored, and life is so much more enjoyable when there's someone there to experience it with.
Line by Line Meaning
Lately I've been slipping down
Recently, I've been feeling down
Thinking I'm the only one
Believing that I'm alone in my struggles
Drifting in and out of blue
Feeling melancholic and moody
But destiny's a state of mind
Fate can be influenced by our thoughts and attitudes
And today I'm doing fine
Today, I'm feeling good
Rolling through the afternoon with you
Passing the time with someone by my side
And it's a widescreen world around me
The world feels vast and expansive
And I'm lying on the backseat of my mind
I'm relaxed and not overthinking things
And it's a widescreen you beside me
You're with me, and we're sharing this experience
We're just riding on the backseat feeling fine
We're enjoying the moment and not worrying about the future
I will be your misfit queen
I'll embrace our differences and be your nonconformist partner
I'll take you where the grass is green
I'll show you the beauty in simple things like nature
Past the littered sidewalk to the sun
We'll leave behind the chaos of the city and head towards the light
I hear the traffic move outside
I'm aware of the hustle and bustle of the world around us
Yeah but if I close my eyes
But I can tune it out if I want
I can make it sound like waves rolling on
I can transform the noise into something calming
And if we lie still can you feel the room
If we stay quiet and still, can you sense the energy around us?
Feel the city, can you feel it move?
Do you feel the pulsating beat of the urban environment?
Tell your body, your body from mine?
Can you distinguish between our physical presences?
Can you la la la lie
Can you relax and just exist in the moment?
I'm lying on the backseat of my mind
I'm in a peaceful mental state
And it's a widescreen world around me
The world feels vast and expansive
And it's a widescreen, got you beside me
You're still with me, and I feel grateful for it
I'm lyin' on the backseat of my mind
I'm still in a relaxed mental state
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
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